Anyone familiar with refueling their vehicle is also familiar with the components at a fueling station: a gasoline or diesel pump, a fuel line connected to the pump, and a handle configured to dispense the fuel into the vehicle. Both diesel and gasoline pump stations include such a configuration.
Diesel engines are commonplace in large commercial trucks. Popularity with diesel engines is rising in passenger vehicles due to technological gains in fuel efficiencies of such engines. But, left untreated, harmful byproducts of diesel fuel combustion can emit from these vehicels.
Nitrogen oxide (NOx) can be created during premixing diesel with air and/or during combustion burning of the diesel in the engine. The harmful effects of NOx emissions are well documented. Diesel exhaust fluid (DEF) is an aqueous urea solution made from a mixture of urea and water, for example. In many vehicles, urea is used as a consumable in order to lower NOx concentration in the diesel exhaust emissions from diesel engines. This process is known as selective catalytic reduction (SCR). In particular, reacting urea with the NOx byproduct of combustion can reduce or eliminate the NOx concentration from the emissions of the vehicle. The urea can be sprayed to mix directly with the NOx combustion byproduct before the byproduct emits the vehicle. Water, nitrogen, and carbon dioxide is instead emitted based on the reaction of NOx with the urea solution.
Diesel-engine vehicles that utilize a urea mixture to improve emissions have two separate tanks—one for diesel, one for urea. This obviously necessitates filling of two tanks Current fueling stations are not properly equipped with mechanisms that enable the operator of the vehicle to safely, quickly and efficiently refuel both tanks. Similarly, there is much room for improvement regarding the vehicle's fueling region and its ability to efficiently accept and retain fluids for the two tanks.